A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) Read online

  Just before she started to move the older man gave her a cool smile and clicked his heels together. "I'll see to that at once. I don't believe we've orders to even detain you, we just rather like the building as it is, if you can resist demolishing it?"

  She nearly gave a flip answer, but decided not to make the situation even worse.

  "Not my plan at all. Just visiting, all that."

  It took a while for things to be arranged and she did wait in her vehicle, with it firmly sealed in case it was a trick. It still could have been, but she followed the guards in, still pointing things at her, bringing the chests along to float behind her, which meant the guards were forced to walk behind the barrier those made for her. They were clearly suspicious but didn't ask what was in the cases that floated behind her. She loved the magical trunks. They were brilliant, and almost no one had them. She decided to try and claim that those belonged to her on the way out, if she had a chance and wasn't fleeing for her life.

  It was the same room as before, but instead of hiding in the walls, she was surrounded bodily by large people in purple and black. The Prince and Princess weren't in either, so it was just the King, Queen and a man that looked to be dressed up like a Truth amulet's field in white and gold. She nodded at them all, but turned to that new man first, after bowing, since she wasn't trying to be rude.

  "Tiera Baker. Conserina Lairdgren, if I haven't been disowned yet. Nothing impressive, fifth in line. I'm sorry, but I don't know you yet, I don't think?" It was possible that he'd been in the crowd a week before, but she didn't think so, not unless he'd been in disguise at the time.

  The man didn't smile at her, but did introduce himself. "William Smythe, of Westend. Military Counselor. Pleased to meet you. I was asked to sit in on this, in case the worst happens."

  That made sense, but at the same time it really didn't. After reflecting on it for a few seconds she shook her head.

  "That I'd go to the other side in this rebellion and sell them the list of names that I was to deliver messages to? I didn't even think of it. Well, I'm young, so I can't be expected to know to do things like that. As I said before, this is between Count Morris, Sandra and I. I was just going to give them a chance to surrender before I finished the job. Hence this letter I wrote. You can read it first if you want. Maybe give me some tips about what to demand. I was considering having myself named Countess and changing the name to County Tierany, but that seemed like too much work to bother with. Plus people might take it the wrong way."

  She passed the letter to George since he was closest to her and he opened it himself, reading the whole thing first and then, chuckling a little handed it off to Counselor Smythe. He seemed less amused, but handed it over to the Queen and then the King, which got both of them to go slightly wide eyed.

  It was Richard that spoke first.

  "So... You're insisting that Sandra Morris wed Count Overland and that Count Morris give all his day to day duties to his wife? That's... unusual to say the least. I can pass this along, I suppose. No demands for land, title or gold though? Those things almost always get included."

  She could use some gold, since she hadn't gotten paid for what she'd done the other day. She could have taken some from the Count, or Sandra, but she'd left that on the street, since the townspeople could use it, she was certain. When she mentioned how she'd dumped the amulets Smythe frowned staring directly into her eyes.

  "That had to be nearly a million golds worth of work. I understand the point, to deprive her of it, but you made a miscalculation there. She can rebuild her stock, but you can't take it again. Or, perhaps you could, but once a treaty is signed it will merely be theft again, not warfare."

  That was true, but she really figured this would hurt the builder worse than just stealing it would have. It was the same as saying she had no value at all. That was what Tiera wanted to get across at least.

  They added in a bid for a half million golds, not expecting that to actually come, since she'd weakened their fund base for a while. Maybe decades. Next she'd have to go over the productive food farms and take out livestock, but that seemed cruel to the other people, if it wasn't needed.

  After a while, the letter was carried off for delivery by several of the larger guards. Count Morris and his people were all there at the palace, since they had nowhere else to go, except Tor's, and while that would be safe enough, they didn't trust that Tiera couldn't reach them there. She could at the King's place too, but she decided not to point that out. It should have been obvious after all.

  The Queen smiled and gestured to the floating boxes behind her. There were ten of them after all, in kind of a cluster, floating at the level of her neck.

  "Are you moving house?"

  Grinning Tiera looked back at the trunks and then turned back.

  "Gifts. From Tor. He found me off in the forest after my last raid on County Morris, tracking me the whole time. He's well and sends his love. We didn't go into what's in the boxes, but not all of them are for you. There's one for each of the other land's Ancients and three for here, which need to go to various people. I was asked to see to getting them around. Color coded I think."

  There was a gasp and Queen Constance jumped up, running toward her, instead of the baggage. "You saw him? Truly? And he's well? Whole and alive?"

  "Out of touch too. I don't know what he's been doing, but it's changed him, I think. He seemed darker now. Less friendly. I told him about the thing with Count Morris and he barely seemed to care at all. He wasn't wild to hear about..." She looked at the King and smiled a little. "Other things."

  The cases for the King and Queen were the purple and gold ones. There were two of them and apparently they held gifts for hundreds of people, most of them being little things that he'd made. One of them was supposed to be an amusement, but other than that they needed to be outside for it, and it would work best at night, there were no instructions.

  There was one unmarked case, which just looked like plain brown wood. When they opened it the note inside said it was for Alyssa. That made sense.

  "I can take it when I go back to school. Even if I can't stay, I can hand it off. Tor said he thought Hardgrove wouldn't remove me for what I've been doing, but I can't count on that. The Instructors might kick me out and I already have seven black marks for the year, so..." It didn't sound great, when she said it all out loud.

  There was a nod from the King, who stood in front of one of the boxes, checking things inside it carefully. He pulled out a single small piece of glowing focus stone and handed it to her.

  "Carry this, always. The note says that it will protect you, if Larval attack." The Queen got one as well, but the King didn't have one. Tiera looked at the glowing green disk and handed it back.

  "You keep it." She didn't say why, but it was really that she didn't want to take a personal gift from him. They weren't friends after all. She'd said so. That made them, if not enemies, then at least people that didn't give each other expensive presents. If Tor wanted her to have one, he'd have given it to her. Wouldn't he? "We aren't close, you and I. Tor sent that for you, didn't he?"

  The man nodded at least, but gave her a hard look.

  "You aren't going to make anything easy, are you? It's much easier working with your brothers. Tor bends backward to do what's needed and Timon understands so easily that I never have to explain myself. You..." He didn't finish the statement, but the voice from the door did.

  Count Lairdgren. He smiled at least.

  "She causes endless ripples. Don't mistake that for lack of intelligence, Rich. You've just met the first of the Immortals that won't easily let an insult go. She isn't the only one left like that. Most aren't beholden to lands, and only half are as kind. With luck we won't have to deal with the others soon. They do tend to keep to themselves." He clapped once and looked around. "So, Tor decided that two hundred years was too long for him to wait, did he? What do we have here then."

  He opened the green box, not waiting to see if it
was for him and read the note inside, nodded a bit as he did. "It's a very special device, to remove the Larval. It had tens of thousands of tiny parts. Each land is to get one. This one needs to be set up today if possible. Tiera, would you get with Timon and see to these other things?" He sounded pretty relaxed about it all, given everything.

  She really expected him to either be more excited about Tor, or more angry about what she'd been doing. It was pretty wasteful after all. If he was like Tor that would probably be a problem. Except he hadn't even blinked about it, had he? Lairdgren didn't either.

  "I don't know, am I still allowed at school?"

  He tilted his head to the right and held that pose for a few seconds, it gave him an air of being just a tiny bit annoyed.

  "Are you going to knock it all down if I say no?"

  She nearly told him she would, but smiled instead, trying not to seem totally insane. Even if she was kind of mean. She was just tired of people trying to bully her, that was all.

  "No. I wouldn't have done that to Morris if he'd simply fought the duel like we'd agreed. I'm not sure what to do about Sandra. She's powerful and that means I probably shouldn't risk letting her live, right? Count Morris is a joke compared to her. It isn't really sane or sensible to leave an enemy alive."

  That got several different reactions from the room. The King and Smythe both nodded, as did George. The Queen looked angry for a few seconds, but was glaring at her husband, not Tiera, and Count Lairdgren shook his head.

  "Normally that might be true, but she's a good woman. Hug and make up, and she'll honor it. You put her in a hard position, and she was forced to take action, that's all. After all, if you'd killed her father then she'd have to do his job, not the one she's chosen for herself. No one is ever wild about that, are they?"

  The idea was nearly funny, it was so strange, but Tiera tried to take it seriously. This man was her grandfather after all. He was thousands of years old and had more experience than almost anyone else in the world. It was hard for her to trust him, but that wasn't his fault really. She didn't trust people all that easily. It was just part of who she was.

  "I'll try. If not, I'll have to take action. I don't want to promise something that might be out of my hands. I suppose I should let her out of that part of the surrender agreement where I insist she marry Count Overland then. Unless she says yes. He seems like a nice man. She could do worse."

  There was a sound from the doorway, which got everyone to look that way, except Lairdgren who already was, not being as distracted by the events as the rest of them were.

  It was the entire Morris family, with Sandra looking rather relieved suddenly.

  "Oh, good. Glad to hear that. Nothing against the Count, I do agree he's very sweet and the way he guarded us with his own body like that, it was very brave. He didn't have a shield or anything at all. Just his faith in you."

  There was a growl from the Count as he started across the room, something in his right hand. It was just a knife though. No one even bothered to try and stop him, Tiera just laughed at him and waited, her shield not even engaging yet for some reason.

  As the blade came down she ducked back. He nearly stabbed himself in the leg.

  "Stop that." Tiera was proud of herself, keeping the last bit she wanted to say off of the sentence. Adding in how he was too stupid to live wouldn't help anything at all. He tried for her again, which she side stepped.

  Then she held up her right hand.

  "Do it again and I will be forced to take sterner measures." It wasn't even a real threat, and the man actually seemed to realize it.

  "What, are you going to do, charge me double?"

  The problem with growing up in the forest, Tiera decided, was that a lot of the really good insults just weren't used. She could tell this was some kind of dig about him calling her a whore, but she didn't really understand why he'd bother. Unless he meant the golds she'd requested from him? There was a point to that though, since it wasn't a real surrender if it didn't hurt a little.

  "Yes. If you come at me again, I'm going to cut off your arms and legs, then heal the wounds with them off, so that you'll be that way forever. I've heard of that being done to control evil people, so it seems fitting. You may think that you're safe behind the shield that Sandra gave you, but let me show you something..." It was risky, since she never managed it before, but she tried to turn the thing off and keep it that way, focusing as hard as she could. It gave her enough time to kick him in the shin, her foot being thrown back when it reengaged, the combined force making the whole thing a lot more effective, making him stagger a bit. "Not perfect, but you can't hide behind your shield from me for certain. I can behind mine however."

  Well, she reflected, not if Sandra or Count Lairdgren didn't want her to, but she was kind of pleased she'd gotten it to work this time. It might even mean all that practice was worth trying. The Count threw the knife at her, in frustration it sounded like from the way he bellowed.

  "I'm a Count! You can't treat me like this! I have an army. I'm important."

  She yawned, patting her mouth delicately. It wasn't a real thing, just a Two Bends mannerism, that surprisingly, everyone else seemed to get.

  "And I'm Immortal. Not trying to one up you, but we can do this all day if you want. You have an Army and I've made them all live in tents and cook over fires. You have vast wealth and half of it is in danger, because you still haven't apologized for purposefully starting a fight with me. You think that you're important, and you are, but you and you alone, have set up your entire County to be vulnerable in a time when that almost guarantees attack. Now, if you want to come after me again, let's do this and finish it right here. Otherwise, I need to be getting back to school before they kick me out."

  She got out her cutter, which the man stared at but didn't seem to really understand. It was a nice one that had a five foot sweep on it. Meant for people just like him. She turned it on, without notice from the room and tried to turn his shield off again and hold it that way.

  Sandra got it.

  "Father, let's cut our losses here. I... don't think I can save you this time." There was enough fear in her voice that the man paused at least. Then put the knife away, which was, if nothing else, a start.

  Then he glared at her, his voice stern.

  "If you think that I'm going to surrender to some trumped up street walker of a schoolgirl, you have another thing coming." He actually pushed his chest forward, as if to try and intimidate her. Because clearly, that had worked at all so far?

  So she turned off his shield and took off his left arm. It hit the floor with a nice meaty thunk. As he stared at it she moved in and kicked it away, and then did the right, getting it just below the elbow as he started to fall down, because of shock and blood loss. Cutters didn't hurt when you cut yourself, but the work was effortless, which made them very dangerous. Then got the legs and asked if anyone had a healing amulet and wanted to save his life. His mouth moved like a fish.

  Sandra looked panicked, but Tiera stopped her and kicked the limbs back to the man, taking a little pity on him. It took four people to hold them in place while he was healed, but he lived and they all got back into place correctly.

  "Alright, that was your last warning. I've been far too nice about all this. Here are the new rules. You pay me all of the gold, Countess Morris is now the sitting ruler of your County and if I see you again and you aren't acting perfectly humble I will do things to you that you cannot even imagine. Over and over again. Do you understand me? If you or any of your people do anything at all to trouble me, ever again, then I will destroy you."

  The man murmured something, but it wasn't intelligible.

  "I'll take that as a yes. Sorry about the mess in here. Count Lairdgren will you see to any needed negotiations for me? Please make certain they stick this time." Then, even though it didn't make sense, she took Sandra by the hand and left, taking all the floating trunks with her, except the three that were supposed to stay. Now all
she had to do was look up Timon and dump the rest on him for delivery and it would all be finished.

  As long as he didn't just take back his Fast Craft. She didn't own it after all, or even have control over it. That belonged to Tim, and she hadn't exactly done her full part of the work for the Council of Counts, had she? Unless they were going to go with messing up Morris as her portion? That seemed fair to her, since the man had clearly been trying to start something with her.

  In the hallway she stopped and let go of Sandra's hand.

  "Look, I don't know what we're supposed to do now. I didn't want a fight in the first place, even if it seemed otherwise and I know that I did a lot that will make you angry with me. I didn't know what else to do. If it makes me seem any better to you, you did a lot to me too. Your family at least. So... Count Lairdgren says I should try to make friends with you now and that if I do you'll let things go. Is that real? He's smart, but... He also isn't you. Does he know you that well?" Tiera didn't think so, but then, for all she knew the two had been lovers for years.

  If that was the case the pretty girl next to her wasn't going to share it seemed, just shaking her head a bit.

  "Not really. I can see the sense of it though. Did you really steal all my things from school?" Her face was a bit displeased by the idea.

  "Um, I destroyed them. Except the amulets... No, don't look hopeful. I dumped them in the ocean." Tiera knew that she'd have to account for that, so turned on the Truth amulet Tim had given her. When it set to glowing she explained. "That way it wouldn't be theft. It was an act of war."

  That was the truth at least and she stopped there, not speaking about how angry she still felt about the whole thing. It came in flashes, but at any moment she might feel like going back and killing the Count, which wasn't a thing she wanted known. She wasn't going to do it, so it shouldn't be a thing she had to answer for. People were still allowed their feelings, right?